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A 'Dirty Dancing' Remake Is Actually Happening! Abigail Breslin to Star as Baby

By Antoinette Bueno 1:51 PM PST, December 8, 2015

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Get ready to see Dirty Dancing in a whole new light.

Lionsgate TV and ABC are moving forward with a musical version of the 1987 classic starring Jennifer Grey and the late Patrick Swayze, featuring 19-year-old Abigail Breslin as "Baby." According to ABC, the new TV movie will be a three-hour event with filmed song and dance performances.

The plot of the Dirty Dancing remake will be the same, telling the story of Frances "Baby" Houseman falling in love with camp dance instructor Johnny Castle. There is no word yet on who will play Castle, a role made iconic by Swayze.

The musical remake news comes off the successful heels of last week's musical presentation of The Wiz Live!, which aside from being a major critical success, brought in more than 11 million viewers for NBC.

Of course, Lionsgate TV and ABC's latest take on Dirty Dancing isn't the first attempt to revive the '80s classic. Diego Luna and Romola Garai starred in 2004's Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, which moved the story's original setting in the Catskill Mountains to Cuba.

In March, ET talked to Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, the stars of another classic '80s film -- 1985's The Breakfast Club -- who said that they actually would not want a remake of the beloved John Hughes film.

"They should do something that is inspired in some way because when I look back on The Breakfast Club, I think it speaks to so many different people, but at the same time it's incredibly white," Ringwald admitted. "I think if there was ever another movie that was inspired by [it], I think it really needs to incorporate racial diversity -- not just racial but all kinds of diversity."